Nineteen Forty Nine

ninETEEn FOrTyninE

My favourite restaurant in Beijing city............
the food is good, with lots of choices and the food presentation second to none,
environment is superb and truly unique in its own style!Jimmie, the cricket taking a break and some sun tanning outside;
otherwise he will be entertaining the diners in the fine dining restaurant.
Jimmie sings non-stop until someone comes near, he can somehow
sense the presence of human.... all will suddenly be quiet.
The Noodle Bar.... where you are served the best ramen
with a choice of pork ribs or beef condimentsDisplay of attractive, love-to-own and expensive art sculptures for sales around the premises

Dine & Wine

After 2 and a half years, finally the mystery woman was introduced to "Charlie"s angels.......:} in a restaurant called 1949 that serves Beijing Duck.... crispy, roasted, crunchy duck skin... yum yum....

The Chef carving the perfectly roasted duck.....

Duck skin served on white duck plate

condiments to go with the duck skin.... oh that little duck is not for eating, its a chopsticks stand

Diane and Marcella

Vina and Diane
(all natural shots.... no posing allowed)

This is the best and the fun part. The duck sauce requires some dressing. First you spoon the mustard and ginger paste on to the sauce in circular motion. Then you swirl your sauce plate in circular movement until a beautiful pattern comes on......you might not do very well on the 1st time.... just like me

Then you spoon the crispy fried shallots in the middle!

See what I meant? This one was done by the expert! Vina......

Oh, I forgot to take pictures of the best part of the meal, the desserts; they were so delicious that we can't wait to take picture before we dig in.....sweet rice balls with different flavour of ice cream inside and the best mini egg tarts I ever tasted... the tarts even have frosted decoration on it and its piping hot.....

Finally, while we dine and wine, we were being entertained by Jimmy, the cricket. He sang all the way through our meals until when we asked and the waitress brought him in his cage to introduce him, then he stopped singing (shy, we think)......special!!!

Beijing Skyline

Pictures taken on a clear sunny day .... the sun is setting over the Beijing skyline. The odd looking structure is the CCTV building just completed about a year ago?...

The CCTV Tower

The building is not on fire; though one beside the CCTV tower (the one on the right) was burnt down recently due to some fire crackers; the building was a brand new hotel supposed to open the day after the fire..... it is now a big eyesore!

The burnt building .... brownish in colour

These 2 pictures taken on a clear morning....